Fish Farmers Under Fire as Argyll Deal Hits the Rocks
The “collapse” of a co-operation agreement between wild fish interests and fish farmers in salmon farming’s heartland is being blamed on the claim that aquaculture companies’ have failed to honour commitments.
The decision by wild fish interests in Argyll to formally withdraw their support from a co-operation agreement with local fish farming companies has prompted the Association of Salmon Fishery Boards (ASFB) today to question the viability of the Scottish Government’s flagship policy of fostering local dialogue and agreements to resolve differences between wild fish interests and the aquaculture industry in the west Highlands and Islands. The collapse of the Lower Lorn Area Management Agreement is blamed on the “serial failure of one side to the agreement to honour its commitments.”
Mr. Wallace continued: “It had been hoped that the issue of impacts on wild fish by salmon aquaculture could have been resolved and worked through by negotiation. In some situations some progress has been made. However, the general intransigence by parts of the Scottish salmon farming industry, the failure of some companies to abide by conditions set out in AMAs and the industry's failure to give even the slightest credence to the widely understood view that industrial scale fish farming can and does, in certain places, impact migratory fisheries, is starting to seriously undermine this whole approach to managing salmon farm impacts.”
Roger Brook, Chairman of the Argyll District Salmon Fishery Board, said: “The demise of the Lower Lorn AMA has been caused by the repeated failure of the fish farmers to honour the agreement particularly when it is commercially inconvenient. I believe that wild fish signatories to the AMA were entirely justified in saying ‘enough is enough’. If any one party is only paying lip-service to what they have signed up to, then clearly it is futile to continue.”
Confidentiality clauses in the Lower Lorn AMA preclude wild fish interests from publishing details of alleged breaches of the agreement. Signatories to the agreement on the aquaculture side were the fish farming companies Pan Fish Scotland, Lakeland Marine Farms and Kames Fish Farming.
But responding to the claims from wild fish interests, the Scottish Salmon Producers' Organisation said:
“We are very disappointed to learn of this announcement by some of the wild salmon interests with whom the fish farmers have worked for many years. Cooperation between the fish farmers and the wild salmon industry has yielded a great many benefits and an enormous amount of good has resulted. Fish farmers will continue to cooperate with the wild salmon sector in other areas of the country.”